Worcester man honored for war actions

Monday

Dec 24, 2012 at 6:00 AM

By Thomas Caywood TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

Decked out in his crisp dress uniform, two rows of polished medals pinned across his chest, Marine Sgt. William B. Soutra Jr. sat quietly Sunday afternoon at Union Station afternoon as one politician after another stood at a lectern heaping accolades upon him.

In July 2010, Sgt. Soutra's platoon was pinned down by withering gunfire in the Taliban stronghold of Helmand province, Afghanistan. The platoon's leader was dead or dying, mortally wounded by a roadside bomb blast as the men walked through a town surrounded by farmland. The exhausted Marines and Afghan Army commandos, on the second day of a long foot patrol together, were caught in the kill box of an enemy ambush.

Sunday, the 27-year-old Marine from the city's Columbus Park neighborhood was surrounded instead by well-wishers eager to congratulate him on the Navy Cross recently awarded to him for valor during the firefight in Helmand Province. Many of the well-wishers snapped pictures of the Marine and his military dog, a Belgian malinois named Tino, who mostly ignored the attention in favor of his rubber chew toy.

In Afghanistan, with the patrol's leader down, Sgt. Soutra took command with what his Navy Cross citation described starkly as a “complete disregard for his own life.” As the Afghan commandos took cover, the young Marine dashed across open ground from man to man to coordinate their fire on the enemy. Then he and the Navy corpsman, or medic, made a run for their fallen leader, a staff sergeant who would later die of his wounds.

At Union Station, Sgt. Soutra and his dog stood up every few minutes during the afternoon ceremony to accept various proclamations, certificates and even a key to the city. A table was set up next to the lectern to hold it all. The documents bore the official seals of the state of Massachusetts, the U.S. House of Representatives, Massachusetts Senate and other government bodies. The Marine Corps League's Warren Griffin, during his remarks, called the young sergeant a “Marine's Marine.”

During the firefight, Sgt. Soutra put a tourniquet on a severely wounded commando and dragged the man to safety under enemy fire, according to the Pentagon account. Amid the chaotic battle, the Marine dog handler kept his cool and saw to the evacuation of the wounded as the firefight raged for more than an hour.

His mother, Penny Soutra, knew none of those stomach-churning details at the time or when she was called to travel from Worcester to her son's California base earlier this month for a ceremony of some kind. At the ceremony, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus presented Sgt. Soutra with the Navy Cross, the nation's second-highest award for sailors and Marines. As he read the citation detailing her son's bravery, Ms. Soutra's stomach fluttered with a mix of pride and trepidation.

“He always wanted to be a Marine in high school. I said, 'Bill, will you please not go?' ” Ms. Soutra recalled.

He gave college a try at her request, Ms. Soutra recalled, but his heart wasn't in it. He joined the Marines after a semester and was soon in combat in Iraq and later Afghanistan.

“I couldn't be prouder of him,” Ms. Soutra said.

She had plenty of company in that regard Sunday.

“You came from here. You're one of us,” said U.S. Rep. James P. McGovern. “You are a reflection of what is the best of Worcester. We're going to brag about you to whoever will listen because we are so proud.”

For his part, Sgt. Soutra seemed more bewildered by the crush of adoration Sunday than he was by the ambush described in his Navy Cross citation. The young Marine smiled, shook every hand extended to him, dutifully posed for cellphone pictures, but was reticent in discussing the battle after the ceremony.

“You just snap into action. Everything after that is just kind of — you don't think about it until after everything is over,” Sgt. Soutra said humbly.